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Abstract:
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NATO’s Military Intervention in
Kosovo and the Diplomatic Alternative
Iulia Elena Socea
Introduction
There is no easy way for understanding NATO’s military intervention in
the Kosovo conflict, more precisely, the bombing campaign in 1999. The
11-week bombing campaign conducted by NATO in spring 1999 against the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) has many claims to uniqueness. It was the
first sustained use of armed force by the NATO alliance in its so-year existence;
the first time a major use of destructive armed force had been undertaken with
the stated purpose of implementing UN Security Council resolutions, but
without Security Council authorization; the first major bombing campaign
intended to bring a halt to crimes against humanity being committed by a state
within its own borders; and the first bombing campaign of which it could be
claimed that it had on its own, and without sustained land operations, brought
about a major change of policy by the target government. All these factors
together make “NATO’s air strikes on Serbia one of the most significant aspects
of Western intervention in the Balkans at the end of the twentieth century.”1
The official claim is that NATO’s actions were “driven by concerns about
the human rights situation in Kosovo and the implications of a further
escalation of the latent conflict there”.2 On the other hand, there is a second
view which states that beyond these, there were other reasons, of a more
complex, strategic nature. “It has been argued that NATO’s military
intervention was dictated predominantly by the need to establish a new role for
itself in the post-Cold War conflict. Events in Kosovo, it is alleged, proved the
ideal opportunity to do so. Supporters of this point of view point to a perceived
implacable stance adopted by NATO with regard to Milosevic in March 1999
and its refusal to pursue a diplomatic solution, preferring instead to impose
terms it new there were too humiliating for Serbs to accept.”3
One thing is sure: NATO’s air strikes on Serbia marked one of the most
significant aspects of Western intervention in the Balkans at the end of the
twentieth century.
The questions that inevitably arise when we talk about the Kosovo
conflict are the following: What were NATO’s objectives? Why did NATO
use force? Should NATO have used force? What other alternatives were
available, if there were any?
Before going into the debate concerning the diplomatic alternatives, it
would be useful to clarify the idea of “humanitarian intervention” and how this
applies to NATO’s intervention in Kosovo.
1 Christopher Williams, “Kosovo: the Fuse for the Lightening”, in The Kosovo Crisis: the
Last American War in Europe, ed. by Tony Weymouth, Anthony Weymouth, Stanley Hening,
(London: Pearson Education, 2001), p.4
2, Christopher Williams, op. cit., p.79
3 Anthony Weymouth, op. cit, p.4
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4
Lessons of Kosovo: The Dangers of Humanitarian Intervention, (Broadview
Press, 2003), p.121
5 John Janzekovic, The Use of Force in Humanitarian Intervention, (London: Ashgate
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NATO’s Military Intervention in
Kosovo and the Diplomatic Alternative
Iulia Elena Socea
and atrocities in Balkans. Moreover, there was a real possibility that Serb forces
would immediately start killing as many Kosovars as possible if NATO attacked
using air power alone. NATO’s military response was not proportional to the
threat.
NATO should have used ground troops, if they actually thought that
military intervention was the only alternative, in order to stop Serb attacks in
Kosovo. “Air power alone took too long and it did not quickly stop the killing.
NATO action did not do what it specifically intended to do, which was to stop
Serbs killing and displacing Kosovars.”7
This having been said, I shall return to the debate over whether there
were or not diplomatic alternatives to the military intervention, which, as I have
shown, didn’t actually reached the proposed objectives.
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Now, as we can see, there is some reason to think that all other
possibilities for changing the situation the Albanians in Kosovo had not been
exhausted.
During the Hague Appeal Conference, it was generally agreed on the fact
that there was an alternative to NATO air strikes on Serbia and Kosovo that
would have saved more lives than the bombing campaign. In brief, UN
endorsement for a large peacekeeping force might have been obtained; at least a
greater effort should have been made. Such a force, together with the OSCE
observers who were in Kosovo could have protected civilians — which
bombing could not do. The key NATO states, which are also major players on
the UN Security Council, could have made an effort to keep non-NATO
countries, especially Russia, involved and helping. This should have been done
at and after the Rambouillet negotiations and also earlier at Dayton when
Kosovo was kept off the agenda. If Russia had been involved as an intermediary
with Milosevic, efforts to avoid a Security Council veto of a UN peacekeeping
plan might have succeeded. And, if the Council had not been ready to endorse
action to maintain peace, the General Assembly could have acted under the
Uniting for Peace Resolution of 1950, which like the proposed Council action,
would have needed to be under Chapter VII of the Charter since Yugoslavia
would not invite the United Nations, or anyone, in to stanch the gross violations
of human rights within its borders. 10
Apart from these considerations, another important aspect regarding the
international diplomatic efforts is that during the summer of 1998 the highest-
profile diplomat in the Balkans, representing the most powerful nation in the
world, Richard Holbrooke had told the KLA that independence was within
reach; second, the KLA was not included in the October agreement that
provided KLA tactical leverage on the ground in Kosovo; and third, that some
of the great powers- through their representatives in OSCE’s KVM were
providing maps and communication equipment to the KLA. This signal of
support could hardly be missed, and it would be fair to argue that this must have
boosted KLA’s morale, speeded up its desire for further international
involvement (i.e., by NATO), and deepened its belief that the independence was
within reach. In other words, the KLA had nothing to lose from the ongoing
process.11
Therefore, as complex and contentious as the Kosovo conflict was, we
can still identify a series of non-violent resolution, so I disagree that military
intervention was the least-bad option at that time. In Faith and Force, David
10Lucy Webster, An Appeal for Peace During Kosovo War, accessible at:
<http://www.epsusa.org/publications/newsletter/june1999/webster.htm>, last viewed
20/12/ 2008
11 Dag Henriksen, NATO’s Gamble: Combining Diplomacy and Airpower in the Kosovo Crisis,
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NATO’s Military Intervention in
Kosovo and the Diplomatic Alternative
Iulia Elena Socea
Clough states that the short-term and long term approach toward the Balkans
should have been cooperative conflict resolution. By that he doesn’t mean to say
that conflict resolution is a panacea but that its possibilities are often left
unexplored, as it is in the care of the Balkan crisis. Moreover, he claims that
representatives of Kosovars should have been included in the Dayton peace
process, and the status of Kosovo should have already been addressed in the
Dayton peace process of 1995. We can identify here the same idea included in
the discussions at the Hague Appeal Conference. Another resemblance with the
major ideas sustained at the Hague Conference is that the United States should
have worked cooperatively with Russia to establish the terms that Russia would
accept in the Rambouillet Accords. The anti-war story insists that the Russians
were marginalized at Rambouillet, were excluded from key Contact Group
decisions, and were kept in the dark about the controversial Appendix B.
According to Ken Booth and others, this unilateral approach to peacemaking
has irrevocably damaged relations between NATO and Russia in such a way that
will make future security cooperation in Europe highly problematic.12
Also, various UN members were concerned about KLA’s use of force use
of force and its designs for power. In this regard, strong efforts should have
been made to incorporate moderate and constructive Kosovar Albanian leaders
such as Ibraim Rugova, at the earliest stage possible. In addition to this, if the
UN, the United States, and the EU had previously made long
term-commitments to the region, they would have encouraged more
cooperative attitudes by leaders and better feelings among the population of the
Balkan republics. 13
As we can see, much reference is made to the Rambouillet Accords as a
potential diplomatic solution, an effort which is claimed to have failed.
Nevertheless, I would say that the text of the Accords weren’t designed in
such a way as to provide a viable diplomatic alternative to military intervention.
I would actually say that the Kosovo conflict might have been avoided if the
West had adopted a more conciliatory, less aggressive stance towards Milosevic.
As Christopher Layne points out, Milosevic was forced to negotiate at
Rambouillet with “a gun at his head”14. Like any trapped rat, Milosevic had no
choice but to try and fight his way out. The stories about Rambouillet that are
told by the anti-war lobby share some characteristics, all of which intimate the
general claim that NATO is either utterly incompetent or, like the Habsburgs
nearly ninety years earlier, deliberately made the terms of the ultimatum
unpalatable to the Serbs, because it wanted to give the FRY a ‘punishment
12 Ken Booth, The Kosovo Tragedy, (London, Routledge & Taylor Francis Group, 2001),
p. 226
13David Clough, Brian Stiltner, Faith and Force, (Washington: Georgetown University
Press, 2007), p.105
14 Christopher Layne, ‘Blunder in the Balkans: The Clinton Administration’s Bungled
War Against Serbia’, Policy Analysis, No.345, (20 May 1999), p.6
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beating’.15 As Chomsky put it, “it has been speculated that the wording was
designed so as to guarantee rejection. Perhaps so. It is hard to imagine that any
country would consider such terms except in the form of unconditional
surrender.”16
The first generally agreed feature of the Rambouillet Accords is that
Rambouillet was a biased pretext for bombing, not an equitable political
solution. The Rambouillet accord, the U.S./NATO "peace plan" for Kosovo
was presented to Yugoslavia as an ultimatum. It was a "take it or leave it"
proposition, as Albright often emphasized back in February. There were, in fact,
no negotiations at all, and no sovereign, independent state could have signed the
Rambouillet agreement. And, as Christopher Layne argued, the Rambouillet was
“a textbook example of how not to practice diplomacy”.17 The whole process,
he says, was biased against the FRY and that “the United States effectively took
sides- the KLA’s- in a civil war.
Secondly, the Interim Settlement was unacceptable because it would have
heavily affected Serbia’s legitimate claim to sovereignty. The accord provided
for a very broad form of autonomy for Kosovo. Kosovo would have its own
parliament, president, Prime Minister, Supreme Court and security forces under
Rambouillet. The new Kosovo government would be able to negate laws of the
federal republic's legislature (unlike U.S. states) and conduct its own foreign
policy.18 All Yugoslav federal army and police forces would have to be
withdrawn, except for a 3-mile wide stretch along the borders of the province.
A new Kosovar police force would be trained to take over internal security
responsibilities. Members of the U.S.-backed KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army)
which is supposed to disarm under the agreement could join the police units.
But, in reality, neither the Kosovo police, the KLA, nor the Yugoslav
federal forces would be the basic state apparatus under Rambouillet: That
function would be reserved for NATO. A 28,000-strong NATO occupation
army, known as the KFOR, would be authorized to "use necessary force to
ensure compliance with the Accords."19
As has been reported in the mainstream media, the Yugoslav government
indicated its willingness to accept the autonomy part of the agreement, but
15 Michael Mccgwire, ‘Why did we Bomb Belgrade?’, International Affairs, 76 (1), (2000).
16 Noam Chomsky, The New Military Humanism: Lessons From Kosovo (London: Pluto Press,
1999), p.107
17 Christopher Layne, op. cit., p.6
18 The Rambouillet Accords, Chapter 1,Article I, Principles of Self-Government in Kosovo,
accessible at
<http://www.commondreams.org/kosovo/rambouillet.htm#Article%20I:%20Principle
s%20of%20Democratic%20Self-Government%20in%20Kosovo> , accessed at 02/01/2009
19 The Rambouillet Accords, Appendix B , Status of Multi-National Military Implementation
Force
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NATO’s Military Intervention in
Kosovo and the Diplomatic Alternative
Iulia Elena Socea
20 Eric Herring, ‘From Bad to Worse: NATO’s War Against Serbia and its Aftermath’,
International Journal of Human Rights, 4 (3–4), (2000), p.3
21 Ken Booth, op. cit
22 Peter Gowan, “From Rambouillet to the Chinese Embassy Bombing”, New Left
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whether they would have enhanced, rather than detracted from, the cause of
justice and humanitarianism more than the bombing campaign has done.
This having been said, I shall briefly present the contrary view regarding
the resolution of the conflict, the view which stresses upon the limits of the
non-military intervention in the case of Kosovo and the gravity of the situation.
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NATO’s Military Intervention in
Kosovo and the Diplomatic Alternative
Iulia Elena Socea
that he destabilized and entire region and guaranteed that there will be armed
conflict until the Kosovars can rule themselves free from of Serb repression.
In addition to this, to the argument that NATO’s actions have sent a
message that force, rather than law, governs international affairs, the supporters
of the military intervention claim that, on the contrary, there are occasions in
which if force is not used there is no future law. Failure to reverse the most
meticulous deportation of a civilian nation since the Second World War would
have set a fatal precedent wherever authoritarian leaders believe that force
should substitute for a dialogue in their domestic affairs.25
Conclusion
There was no internationally-significant human-rights crisis in Kosovo
immediately prior to the NATO bombardment that justified its intervention on
behalf of the ethnic-Albanian population. In arguing for a humanitarian
intervention, NATO applied a standard to Kosovo that it does not apply to
other countries, such as Turkey, the U.S., or Israel for that matter. The
problems of warfare that existed in Kosovo were largely a result of U.S. support
for the KLA, with the intent of causing a crisis that justified intervention.
Proponents of the NATO intervention cannot argue that the intervention was
humanitarian. The intervention was illegal, destructive, and based on fraudulent
claims.
NATO’s argument for the intervention is false or misleading at best. First,
the conflict between the Serbian government and KLA forces was initiated by
NATO in order to create a situation that justified intervention. Second, despite
NATO’s revisionist history, no refugee crisis existed until after NATO began its
bombardment. William Blum points out that in the real historical timeline, and
not NATO’s, the New York Times of March 26 1999 wrote, "With the NATO
bombing already begun, a deepening sense of fear took hold in Pristina [the
main city of Kosovo] that Serbs would now vent their rage against ethnic
Albanian citizens in retaliation. […] Civilians only began to flee after the
bombing because NATO bombs, not vengeful Serbs, pushed Kosovars into
safer ground."26
The Rambouillet Accords, which could have provided a viable diplomatic
solution for the conflict, were intentionally designed in such a way that no
sovereign, independent state would have signed it, as I have shown above.
Moreover, the Serbian proposition for a peaceful settlement was not taken into
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Resources
Blum, William, Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower, (Maine:
Common Courage Press, 2000);
Both, Ken, The Kosovo Tragedy, ( London: Routledge & Taylor Francis
Group, 2001);
Chomsky, Noam, The New Military Humanism: Lessons From Kosovo
(London: Pluto Press, 1999);
Clough, David & Stiltner, Brian, Faith and Force, (Washington:
Georgetown University Press, 2007);
Gowan, Peter, “From Rambouillet to the Chinese Embassy Bombing”,
New Left Review, (1999);
Henriksen, Dag, NATO’s Gamble: Combining Diplomacy and Airpower in the
Kosovo Crisis, (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2007);
Herring, Eric, ‘From Bad to Worse: NATO’s War Against Serbia and its
Aftermath’, International Journal of Human Rights, 4 (3–4), (2000);
Janzekovic, John, The Use of Force in Humanitarian Intervention, (London:
Ashgate Publishing, 2006);
, Lessons of Kosovo: The Dangers of Humanitarian Intervention,
(Broadview Press, 2003);
Layne, Christopher, “Blunder in the Balkans: The Clinton
Administration’s Bungled War Against Serbia”, Policy Analysis, No.345, (20 May
1999);
Mccgwire, Michael, “Why did we Bomb Belgrade?”, International Affairs, 76
(1), (2000);
Webster, Lucy, An Appeal for Peace During Kosovo War, accessible at:
<http://www.epsusa.org/publications/newsletter/june1999/webster.htm>, last
viewed 20/12/ 2008;
The Rambouillet Accord, accessible at:
<http://www.commondreams.org/kosovo/rambouillet.htm>, last viewed
02/01/2009;
"NATO & Kosovo Historical Overview," NATO, accessible at:
http://www.nato.int/kosovo/history.htm, last viewed 03/01/2009;
Debate: Is Military Intervention over Kosovo Justified? Skidelsky vs.
Ignatieff, Prospect, Tuesday, June 01, 1999, accessible at:
http://www.skidelskyr.com/site/article/debate-is-military-intervention-over-
kosovo-justified-skidelsky-vs-ignatief/, last viewed, 20/03/2009;
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